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March 08, 2012

The Light Shines In The Darkness, Year B, Lent 4Fourth Sunday of Lent Shaughnessy Heights United Church VancouverNumbers 21:4-9 Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) John 3:14-21 Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) The Rev. Dr. George HermansonFear of the darkness is a primal fear. Fear of the unknown. All horror movies have scenes of ominous movements in the midnight hour. Leaves move and make loud noises. Shadowy figures are just beyond our light. Remember as a child fear of the the monsters under the bed or hiding in the closet. Some children need a night light so they can sleep with confidence. Other times a parent comes in to shine a light under the bed.In a vision quest, one of the disciplines is to go out into the woods without light. I have done this and the night gets nosier and stranger. One has to learn to embrace the night and the dread that is there. Metaphorically one has to shine a light on the fear.In Numbers we have a story of a people who have lost their security by gaining their freedom. They are now out in the desert and the familiar has gone. They have to construct a new identity of a people God has called through liberation.

Here they are lost and fearful. Like any group, or person, who operate out of fear, they project, get negative. The snakes are symbolic of this fear, so the story tells us that God gives them a way to deal with their fear. Moses creates a bronze snake on a pole. Think of it this way: that which they fear is raised to eye level. The people can look the fear it its eye and are healed. They gain a new sense of wisdom.When we turn to John we are given an image of light - a light shines in the darkness. It is to shine the light onto those fears that make us less and to be liberated from those fears. Like the Numbers passage, John reflects a community which has found hope and then lost it through fear. The times had become difficult, so John writes to remind them that despite the reality of difficult times, of loss and danger, they have a light of a God. Reality is redeemed and they should not fear.We can identify with their concern because we know the church is going through another time of reconstruction. This brings fear. We are currently living through a significant time of religious, cultural, social and intellectual change. We know the religious world we grew up in no longer exists. No longer is religion privileged for it is under challenge. All institutions are being challenged, for a new world view is taking shape today. We must learn to address this new reality. This will mean facing those things that no longer work. To share our gift of faith to today’s reality we need to reconstruct. A reality that God loves.Our scriptures reflect a feeling of being caught in a changing reality. There is fear because they experience a broken reality. We can identify with their questions. Are we not plagued with fiery serpents? So do we not worry at the rustle to the left and the slither to the right? Have we not been sleepless waiting for the unwanted visitor in the night? Does not death walk our streets in ten thousand subtle forms? What remedy is given in the name of God?In each reading we see that we are under God’s Grace. God works in the world as it is, to lure it to were it could be. There is light in the darkness that shines in the hidden places of fear. In God’s initial aim God offers wholeness, a possibility for the moment and we are free to choose how to respond. We have the light or wisdom of God to help make choices. Choices that offer healing to others and ourselves.John reminds us that God did not condemn the world. We can misread it as God sent God’s son as some scapegoat. However, what John is saying is; God loves this world and is in the redemption business, in each moment shines the light into dark places. God invites the us to journey toward wholeness, to be rooted in the moment where our community is one of service and celebration.God in so loving the world is about offering the wisdom to see that every part of reality is redeemed and is being redeemed. Our fears, failures, and brokenness do not define us. What defines us is we live in the light of a redeemed world. We are called to an inner sense of God, to let the light shine in our hearts and then we sense ourselves as fully integrated people. We offer to God and the world this sense of wholeness, mind, body and soul, and we become the light to our reality for God shines through us.John speaks of being glorified. It is the appearance of God into everyday events, receiving the world’s pain. The receptive light is in the midst of the world. God blesses the world of human affairs - Christ came not condemn but to bring light. We are to come to our senses through the light of Christ. John puts it: "their deeds belong to God." Our deeds are to refract the light.I remember a sermon from my Chicago days. It was a Black Pentecostal church we occasionally went to. "Snake handling is part of our tradition. Why? It is to learn to handle snakes. Why are they lifted up? Why do we risk the bite of a snake? It is because we live in a world of snakes. It is because we need to learn to tame snakes. In doing so we learn to handle Mayor Daly and the racism of our world. With our eye on the prize we are freed from fear. With our eye on the prize we march against death. With our eye on the prize we can overcome. The prize is lifted up so our eyes will not turn down. The lifting up of the prize removes fear - we are redeemed - we are free - we will overcome some day."Santana, the rock musician, wrote a song dealing with this reality"Put Your Lights On"Hey now, all you sinnersPut your lights on, put your lights onHey now, all you loversPut your lights on, put your lights onHey now, all you killersPut your lights on, put your lights onHey now, all you childrenLeave your lights on, you better leave your lights on

Cause there's a monster living under my bedWhispering in my earThere's an angel, with a hand on my headShe say I've got nothing to fear

All of this calls us to look at those things that bring terror and pain and face them. We have a resource for that facing in the light of God which shines through us and is found in others. Being blessed, our vocation is to bless our world. Our call is, don’t act as if God has not redeemed life - salvation has happened - live it!

February 08, 2012

Inner WorkFebruary 12, 2012 Fallowfield and Merivale United Churches Sixth Sunday After Epiphany2 Kings 5:1-14 Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) Mark 1:40-45 Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called the Outliers. "Outlier" is a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience. This book grew out a frustration he found having with the way we explain the careers of really successful people. He shows how practice is crucial. For example the difference between those with excellent talent and those who are outliers, those we see on stage or in music or in athletics is they practiced 10000 hours. As well, becoming an Outlier is a group project. When people become outliers, it is not just because of their own efforts. It's because of the contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances.

Paul gives us the image of spiritual training in the metaphor of the discipline demanded of an elite athlete. There is no quick and easy way of preparation. However, in our world the demand on people is such that some do seek a faster method. We see this in the issue of enhancing drugs that hit the news and how testing for such drugs is now an ethical issue in sports. This suggests there is a tension of how one forms habits of discipline, and how they flow over to other aspects of life. There is an inner discipline that is needed which works for performance and also in how one lives in daily life. It is the inner stuff that allows one to withstand the pressures of our commodified world, and when one fails, to begin again.

This is a life project for all of us. We seek to find the images and messages that can carry us in daily life and also in the big issues. This inner work of spiritual reflection is for the sake of the world. It requires deep self reflection, and deep reflection on the issues of the world. The inner work is always to drive us to world solidarity. If it has no impact on the common good than it has no impact on the inner reality.

Our story of Naaman can be a template for us. Let me walk you through the metaphors to find what the author was teaching. It is a story that suggest vulnerability not control is how we create inner character.Naaman is hero. Heroes are not to be blemished and he is. He is to be feared and yet in his time of need a foreigner, a slave, a girl tells him what to do. This may not seem to be a big deal to us, however in the time of honor/shame, of tribalism, of having no exchange with the enemy, this is a transformational action. This action should not be, it is not how things are. The very fact of healing coming from the source - an enemy and slave will be inner challenge. Naaman has to change and it is a tough demand on him. He is use to being in control and not vulnerable.

The King of Israel responds - fear. He thinks this request is a trick for why would an enemy ask for help? And then the king receives unexpected help from a new spiritual reality - the prophet Elisha. Naaman goes off to the prophet not to the priest. Here again the mighty man is faced with a difficult and unexpected action. It would be expected that there would be a face to face encounter, but it is not Elisha who speaks to him, for he sends his man to speak to him. This would be humiliating to a powerful man. Thus a new demand of humility is added to his inner work. And no big magical show happens - just go an dip yourself in the Jordan.

It only gets better, from a story point of view, for it gets worse for Naaman. The Jordan is not a mighty river, in fact it is not much of a river, dirty and small. It is like comparing the a creek to the Ottawa. Again, in the time of the story, this would be an insult.

Again, who brings the transformational information? Again from a servant/slave. The power arrangement is stood on its head, for it is from an unexpected source that healing comes.

To be healed Naaman had to go through some demanding inner work. All of his power images challenged and changed. What is interesting in the story, which we did not read, Elisha expects no reward but tells him to go in Peace - which is code - live your life in gratitude and peace - live as a changed man. This story reinforces Gladwell’s point none of us are self created, we are who we are through the help and support of others.

We hear the echo of this in Mark’s story of healing. The healing is how one lives.This is the miracle, changed attitudes. Leprosy is a metaphor for the things in our world that break and destroy community. To heal is a matter of taking care of both the small things and the big things. One is freed from the thing that holds one back - the fear, the small mindedness that inhabit us. It is to live with what is, and to work to change the contours of existence. The healing comes when one faces that which is the most fearful.

Both Jesus and the leper create a context of vulnerability. Jesus risks in touching. The leper in asking for help. This is the giving up of control, give up trying to control the outcome. Society had said no, used leprosy has a control mechanism. He was to see himself as shameful because of his disease. Not worthy. What is happening is Jesus connects. He sees that the leper has worthiness. Jesus saw beauty and thus the healing is now the leper sees himself as beautiful, worthy Having experiencing compassion he will now live compassionately.

A friend who teaches Yoga says the rewarding outcome comes through time and when the inner work changes how one acts in the world. The fun is in the details. The work of spiritual reflection is finding our walk with God, and to live for the common good. This means naming those things that are the lepers in our life and world and then to kiss the leper.

In our Acts passage we get the marching orders for the church. We may puzzle over the meaning of the coming of the Spirit. They did then. The watchers ask if the disciples were drunk.

It is called ecstatic speech. We have all some experience of this when we are so excited we cannot get out our words or they tumble over one another. Then there are times the moment of awe is so great we say nothing. There is nothing magical about this experience, and the writer of Acts uses colourful and metaphorical language to tell of a moment when the world changed.

We all have a moment or event in which our world changed. We heard or saw things in new ways, heard or saw things that we had never had before. Our world was changed, we were changed.

One of the warnings we get is be careful with your personal information because there are people out to steal our identity. Identity theft is with us and it has always been with us. Those who experience it speak of losing their sense of self. They have become a nobody - a sense they no longer exist. They say their sense of self - their soul has been stolen. They no longer exist, cannot be seen. In the past, though, it was much more violent. The Romans used the Cross to achieve this - the one crucified becomes a nobody. Their identity stolen. Their reality is destroyed - it is as if they never existed. Crucifixion destroyed identity.

Yet here we are with Mary. The one she loved was crucified. The Romans tried to wipe away any sense of Jesus - to make him a nobody, to wipe away all memory of him. But for Mary it was not an end. She is still searching. She is looking for meaning. We, too, gather this Easter morning to celebrate the memory of a crucified one - Jesus.

December 24, 2009

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

There we are, my brother and I, in the backseat, and the motels with their no vacancy signs. The tension is rising as we drive on and on. It was getting dark so my father decides he will go to the Banff Springs Hotel. It is beyond our price range but maybe they might have a room. No, but we can put you up in the staff house - a tent on a cold night. But the innkeeper had taken pity on us.

There we are, in Jamaica and the rooms are not there because the innkeeper did not make the family move because of death. Steve and I phone around and no rooms. Then one place says we have rooms in part of the hotel under renovations. The innkeeper had taken pity on us.

There they are, Mary and Joseph looking for shelter against the storm. And words we use every Christmas, “No room in the inn.” We have had generations of sermons that have emphasized the surface meaning of the story. We have been called upon to open our closed hearts, to prepare room for the heart of love. We have been asked to birth a generous spirit. Of course, there is truth to this metaphor. It is true that at this time of the year our hearts are touched and we do become more inclusive and welcoming of the stranger. All good stuff from those famous lines.

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Next week I have organized an event on Transforming Theology for Church and Society. In reading the material, clearly we must as a church develop a faith that address our world of “I am spiritual but not religious.” We are moving into is the age of Spirit where there is “no standardized theology, no single pattern of governance, no uniform liturgy, and no common accepted Scripture.” It is a time where all our faith statements are our best approximation, based on reason, a critical reading of the bible, and reconstructing our theology. This is a time of both excitement and chaos, of energy and closing down, of jumping into the future or seeking of comfort zones of the past. It is a time to take courage, to be bold in our faith, to claim new understandings of God that will guide us into the unknown future. Research indicates a healthy congregation includes study and worship life. It was found that a deep spirituality and open hospitality were the values that grounded them. This deep spirituality and hospitality was nurtured by the ministers, and lived by the people of the church.

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

As I prepared, a new book by Harvey Cox caught my eye. It is called, The Future of Faith. He says that there is a “profound change in the elemental nature of religiousness.” His first book, in 1965, was The Secular City. It asked how the church was to be, when the church was being pushed to the margins of life. Not all that he said then turned out to be true. In later works, he prepared us for the saying - “I am spiritual not religious” - as the world the church must respond to.

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

We have dressed the church this morning to remind us of the beauty of the earth, life that is given by soil and care. We dress up to remind ourselves of what is important. When we go out for a special occasion our clothes reflect the meaning of the event.

Our texts reflect giving thanks and rejoicing. I especially like the passage from the prophet Joel. He writes after a period of difficulty and stress. His sense of well-being and thanksgiving is so great that he includes the soil and the animals as well as human beings in the rejoicing. It resonates for us, I think, living as we do where Autumn just bursts with exuberant colour and richness. We can say with Joel that in our coloured leaves and vivid blue skies all of creation gives joyful thanks to the Creator.

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Asking questions is important. We learn by asking questions. We test ideas and actions by asking questions. Yet not all questioning does that. For there is another type of question, where insight is not looked for. It is to challenge the speaker. The challenge comes with a hidden agenda. One of the response I have to such a question is, “What is the statement that you want to make?” For the question comes out of settled worldview, a sense this is how it is and I want to trap you with the question. It is not asked with sincerity but with “I am going to get you.”

Jesus’ encounter about divorce illustrates such a question. He is being tested to see if he is an authentic teacher. There is no sense of, “I want to learn,” in the question. It is clear from how Jesus responded that he understands the question as a trap.

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

One of the issues we face in a multi-religious world is how to accept others as having insight into the nature of reality. Do other religions have truth? Is often how the question is posed. Then there are other voices that are not religious, do they have some truth? Do those outside the religious community have important insights we ought to pay attention to? Do other religions have something to teach us? Do other voices tell us something important?